Anything to Make You Smile (It Is My Better Side)
by theirhappystory
Summary: "Hi, I'm Felicity." That's it he's gone. All it takes is her name and he's completely done for. High School AU


**Tumblr prompt: olicity high school au - lovesick Oliver wants to ask felicity out, but fails! – ohmypreciousgirl**

Anything to Make You Smile (It Is My Better Side)

Oliver Queen and Tommy Merlyn, his best friend and partner in crime, pretty much have the school in the palm of their hands. Girls wanted them and guys wanted to be them. They had money and their family names and any trouble they got into could be taken care of with the signing of a check. People said high school was the start of the best time of your life. Oliver was inclined to agree.

The only thing that he didn't enjoy about high school was going to class, which he frequently didn't. But today was the first day of his and Tommy's senior year and he had decided that he would attend all of his classes... at least for the first day. It wouldn't be a lot of work. Everyone knows that the first few days are always filled with teachers reviewing the syllabus and making the class take part in tedious icebreakers. It would be easy.

He's walking into his afternoon chemistry lab with Tommy when he sees her. She's sitting at a lab bench, blonde ponytail sitting high on her head and nose stuck in a book that looks nothing like the sappy romance novels he's seen in various girls' bedrooms. He doesn't notice her because of her clothes or her looks. It's simply because she's new. He can't remember seeing her in any of his classes or the hallways in years past. She's sitting next to Sara Lance, his best and only female friend Laurel Lance's younger sister and they chat even though the girl never really looks up from her book. The bell rings, signaling the start of class, and he and Tommy grab a seat together at the last open bench.

It takes fifteen minutes for their instructor to realize that the two boys should not be sitting next to each other.

"Mr. Queen, would you kindly trade partners with Ms. Lance, please."

"But I-"

"Please be diligent. You're wasting my class time."

Oliver gathers his things with a parting glance at Tommy and trades places with Sara. She's a sophomore, who ended up in this class because of her advanced sciences program. The only reason he knows this is because he vaguely remembers Laurel mentioning how proud she was of her little sister and maybe she would be in his lab this year. It seems the blonde he noticed earlier is just as upset with the switch in partners because she stares helplessly at Sara as she leaves.

Okay, he may be a slacker, but he's not _that_ bad. Oliver will do the work as long as someone explains it to him and tells him what to do. He's actually kind of annoyed that she thinks so little of him. She looks up at him as he takes the seat next to her and he catches his breath when their eyes meet, totally cliché he knows but that's what happens. Her bright eyes, a bluish green color, sparkle up at him from behind her glasses. She's got this cute little button nose and her full lips are painted a bright shade of fuchsia.

"Hi, I'm Felicity." That's it he's gone. All it takes is her name and he's completely done for.

"Felicity…" It sounds so right rolling off his tongue and he decides then and there that he wants to say it as much as possible in as many ways as he can.

"Uh, yeah and you are…?"

"Oh right, Oliver. Oliver Queen." His usual charm is missing in action and he ends up doing this awkward juggling act with his books as he sticks out his hand for her to shake. Mentally he kicks himself. A handshake? Really? From across the room he's pretty sure he can hear his best friend snickering.

"If you're done disrupting my class, Mr. Queen, I'd like to continue reviewing the lab manual."

"Sorry." He takes the seat next to Felicity and spends the rest of the class sneaking glances at her and trying to see the title of the book she was reading when he walked in.

….

It's halfway through the first semester and Oliver hasn't missed a single lab class. The reason for that is totally and completely, 100% Felicity Meghan Smoak. He asked her what her middle name was the second week of school. Well, he blurted it out while she was measuring fifty milliliters of sodium chloride into a beaker.

He's learned a lot about her these past few months. She's a sophomore and enrolled in the advanced sciences program, that's how she knew Sara. She just moved here with her mom from Central City. Her favorite color is yellow and Oliver thinks it fits her perfectly, bright and happy and full of life just like she is. She's Jewish but doesn't go to synagogue as much as she should. Her biggest fears include needles and kangaroos. The book she was reading the first time he saw her was "Short Cuts to Code Breaking", apparently computers are the love of her life. Well, next to Barry Allen, her boyfriend back home.

A piece of him, he refuses to say his heart even though yes it was his heart, sank when he discovered that last piece of information. She had been smiling down at her phone during class and he had been staring, again. After the first ten times she caught him doing that she finally gave up on questioning him. When she let out a quiet giggle he couldn't stop himself from asking what was so funny.

"Oh my boyfriend just sent me something really cute. His name is Barry and he lives back in Central but he's coming to visit this weekend. It's our one year."

A wave of jealousy and longing passes through Oliver. Of course Felicity has a boyfriend. She's intelligent, honest, enthusiastic, beautiful… he could go on for days.

"Oh, that's nice of him." His tone is just shy of genuine and he hopes she can't hear it.

"Yeah, he's a really nice guy." She spends the rest of the class with this dreamy look on her face and he spends it looking like someone just kicked his puppy.

"Dude, what's with the sad face?" Tommy and Oliver walk out of class together and heading for their cars.

"She has a boyfriend." He doesn't need to clarify who she is. Tommy has been subject to his lovesick ramblings for months.

"Oh man you have it so bad." His best friends shakes his head and laughs at him. Apparently he finds Oliver's pain rather amusing.

"I know."

….

This is the first time ever he is happy to be going back to school after a break. Where the rest of his schoolmates are walking slowly to class with varying expressions of despair on their faces, Oliver heads to lab with a bounce in his step and a smile on his face. It's been two weeks since he's seen or heard from Felicity, minus that one time over break when he sent her a text about the lab report they had due once they returned. He already knew the answer, surprisingly chemistry wasn't so horrible when he applied himself, but he wanted to reach out to her. This crush he has is reaching the point of pathetic. If you asked Tommy, he'd say it was beyond that by now.

He walks into the room and immediately looks to their lab bench, she's always there before him. The emptiness at their table startles Oliver. He looks to the board at the front of the class to see if maybe they were assigned new seats, but nope there's nothing up there besides a lazily scrawled welcome back and everyone is sitting in their normal places. Maybe she's just running late. He takes his seat and waits for her to arrive but she never does. It's the first time she's missed a lab.

During class he pays extra close attention when they go over the procedure for next class's lab. He even takes notes to give to Felicity even though she usually understands this stuff better than their teacher. She could be sick or maybe someone died and he doesn't want her to stress about missing one class.

When the period ends he walks over to Tommy and Sara's table. Sara and Felicity have become good friends and maybe she knows what's going on and can give Felicity the notes he took or at least tell him where she is.

"Hey, Sara, do you know where Felicity is?"

"Yeah she said something about going to the library to get some work done. Why?"

"I took notes and wanted to get them to her before next class."

Sara stares at him for a second in disbelief. Oliver Queen doesn't take notes and he definitely doesn't take them for girls he then tries to track down and give them to.

"Are you feeling okay?" She can't help the question.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Tommy tries to hide his laughter with a cough and covers his mouth with his hand.

"I'm just trying to remember the last time Oliver Queen took notes for a fellow student."

"Hey! I take notes." She gives him a blank look and he amends his statement. "On occasion."

"Riiiight. Well, I think she's still there if you want to catch her before she leaves."

"Thanks!" He rushes out of the room and to the library, which takes longer than it should because he's only ever been there on the occasional class trip for some research paper he half-assed and turned in late.

Upon his initial entry, Oliver doesn't spot Felicity and he thinks she's already left. Walking around the area students typically go to do work, or at least he assumes because there's a cluster of desks and computers where students are seated, he doesn't see the familiar glasses and blonde ponytail that he's come to associate with Felicity – Except for that one week when her glasses broke. She had put her contacts in and worn her hair down and it was both heaven and hell for him. – Then he remembers her mentioning this one spot in the back of the library she likes to go to because it's extra quiet and peaceful.

Rounding the corner, Oliver sees that he was correct in where to find her. However, what he finds is nothing like he expected. Felicity is sitting on the floor, back against the shelf, with her legs bent in front of her and her head buried in her arms. Her shoulders are shaking slightly and he can hear tiny little gasps coming from her. The image breaks his heart and he quickly kneels in front of her.

"Felicity? What's wrong?"

"How did you know I would be here?" The words are muffled because she doesn't look up at him.

"Sara said you were in here studying and I remembered you mentioned this back corner."

"Oh…" He can hear the tremor in her voice.

"What happened? Did someone do something to you?" If someone is responsible for this he is going to find them and they won't be happy when he does.

"No, no. Uhm… Barry and I broke up."

Barry. That son of a bitch broke up with her. Where Oliver knows he should be celebrating her now single status, he isn't. How can he be happy about that makes her this upset?

"I'll break his jaw for you."

He keeps his tone light, teasing, but part of him is seriously offering to cause the boy bodily harm. She lets out a watery laugh and finally looks up to meet his gaze. Her eyes are bloodshot and puffy from crying. In that moment Oliver wants nothing more than to take her in his arms and never let her go. He wants to do everything he can to protect her so that she never cries again.

"That's okay. I really shouldn't be this upset. I was the one who instigated it."

That stops him short. Felicity broke up with Barry. It was her idea to call it quits.

"Why? The couple times you mentioned him it sounded pretty serious."

"It was, but I can't do the long distance anymore and we've been growing apart for awhile now. It's okay. I'll be okay. We were just together for so long and he was my best friend. It's weird not to have him so involved in my life anymore."

Felicity starts to tear up again and Oliver moves without thinking. His sits down right next to her, back to the bookshelf, and wraps his arm around her shoulders. She doesn't flinch or try to move away. Instead she leans into him and he pulls her tighter.

….

He waits the obligatory month before asking her out. It's just long enough that he's not a rebound but short enough that he doesn't start going crazy… crazier.

Oliver has been thinking about this since the moment she told him her and Barry broke up. He had a well thought out plan to come off as smooth yet caring. If you asked him, he would deny practicing in his room for two hours. But if you asked his little sister Thea, she would tell you how she walked in on him talking to a mirror and once he explained to her that no, he wasn't crazy, she pretended to be Felicity for him.

Of course that plan went to hell.

They are leaning close together, sharing a microscope to study their lab slides. She has this look of concentration on her face and it's so cute the way her lips purse and her brows furrow, and he just kind of says it.

"Do you want to come over to my place on Friday?"

She looks up at him from her microscope and studies him for a second because this is the first time he's ever really asked her to do anything outside of school.

"Sure. What time?"

"Is six thirty good for you?" His voice sounds way too eager to his ears but he doesn't really care because she said yes.

"Yeah, six thirty is great."

"Awesome." Awesome? That's it? So much for his plan to be cool and collected.

Across the room, Oliver catches Tommy's attention and gives him a wide smile to which his best friend responds with two thumbs up. He's probably just excited that he doesn't have to listen to Oliver mope about Felicity anymore.

….

The doorbell rings at exactly six thirty-seven. Not that's he was keeping track or anything. He definitely wasn't sitting on the steps by six and then pacing the entranceway for the following thirty-seven minutes it took her to get there.

When he opens the door he can't fight the grin from appearing on his face.

"Felicity, hi."

"Hi." They stand there for a second and he still has that goofy smile on his face.

"So, are we going inside anytime soon or…?"

"Oh, right, yeah sorry come in." He's an idiot.

Stepping back, Oliver pulls the door wider for her to come in. She's walking past him and is surveying the house in awe when he notices it. She's wearing her backpack. He's about to ask about it when she speaks.

"So, where do you normally do your work? Is there like some massive study in this place? Or do you just do it in the kitchen like almost every other teenage boy so that you're closer to the food?"

"Uhm, what?"

"The lab report, Oliver. That is why you asked me to come over… right?"

The ground needs to just open up and swallow him whole right now. He would prefer that to this mortification.

"Uh, not exactly." He reaches up to rub the back of his neck in a nervous gesture as he lets out and embarrassed laugh.

"Okay, then I am really confused."

Oliver tries to think of the best way to say this. No matter what he's already beyond embarrassed and feels so incredibly awkward. Never in his eighteen years of life has he had such trouble with a girl before. But Felicity is so different from anyone else he's ever met. He decides the best way to go about this is quick and to the point, like ripping off a Band-Aid. That's always what seems to happen when he's around her anyway.

"When I asked you to come over, I was asking you out." She doesn't respond and he finally looks at her again. She looks shocked but also… hopeful.

"Like on a date?"

"Yes, like on a date. If that's what you want, I mean. Or it could be two friends just hanging out, watching a movie or something. Whatever you're comfortable with."

The next moment will replay in Oliver's memory for the rest of his life. Felicity drops her backpack to the ground with a resounding thud and crosses the space between them. She reaches up, wraps her arms around his neck, and yanks him down to her level to kiss him. Once he gets over the initial shock, Oliver takes action. His arms wrap around her tiny waist and pull her flush against him.

Felicity's fingers run through the short strands of hair at the nape of his neck and she tugs in them to deepen the kiss. His tongue seeks hers out and he is the one to let out an embarrassing moan at the contact. She smiles into the kiss and laughs at how eagerly he presses his mouth against hers. Oliver walks them back until they hit something, thankfully a wall and not the table or the stairs because he's had enough embarrassment tonight.

His hand runs down her waist to her thigh and then to her knee. He grabs around the back of it and hitches her leg around his waist. Felicity takes the hint and hops up to wrap both of them around him. Their kisses begin to slow after a few minutes and he pulls away to press his lips lightly down her throat and back up again before placing a final kiss on her mouth.

"It's about damn time." He laughs at her response, breathy and a little throaty.

Yes, yes it is.

...

**Author's Note: Yay, look! Something fluffy and not completely angst ridden! I was taking prompts on Tumblr and this one got away from me so I decided I would post it! Obviously since it was supposed to be a simple prompt it's not as long as a normal story would be :)**

**Let me know what you think!**

**\- B**


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